The Ministry of Steel is looking for collaborations with Japan to reduce carbon emissions in steel production. It also plans to consider introducing mechanisms for implementing specific technologies through project funding from Japanese institutions.

Currently, one of the two decarbonisation projects underway includes use of green hydrogen as an alternative fuel to partly replace coal, and the second includes developing new coke-making technologies that use less coking coal and show higher oven productivity.

The first project, COURSE 50, aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from blast furnaces by 30 percent through part replacement of coke with hydrogen. Technologies such as injection of reformed coke oven gas (COG) and carbon-capture-and-use-and-storage (CCUS) seek to lower the emission intensity of blast furnaces.

The second project, SCOPE 21, is a high-end coke making process developed under a national project by the Japanese steel industry. It enables use of large amounts of non-coking coal or slightly coking coal for coke production to attain higher plant productivity.

India targets to minimise 45 percent of carbon emissions by 2030, 70 percent by 2047, and 100 percent by 2070. Plans are in progress to introduce 1,500 GW of non-fossil fuel energy by 2030, with priority accorded to replacing thermal power usage with renewable energy in the steel industry. Moreover, under the National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM), the country intends to generate five MT of green hydrogen .